Construction of an electrocatalyst with oxygen-vacancy-rich nickel oxyhydroxide self-supported film for urea oxidation reaction

ABSTRACT

In this work, the oxygen-vacancy-rich nickel oxyhydroxide self-supported on iron foam was fabricated by rapid electrodeposition method followed by an Ar plasma treatment. The Ar plasma engineering offers nickel oxyhydroxide film porous structure with enhanced surface area and abundant oxygen vacancies. The oxygen-vacancy-rich nickel oxyhydroxide electrocatalyst showed small potentials of 1.42 V at 10 mA cm⁻² and 1.59 V at 100 mA cm⁻² for urea oxidation reaction in alkaline condition with a small Tafel slope of 76.1 mV dec⁻¹ and good durability over 20 h. This work provides a rapid, facile and simple way to synthesise highly efficient and self-supported electrocatalyst for urea oxidation reaction.

KEYWORDS:

• Oxygen-vacancy-rich
• nickel oxyhydroxide
• plasma engineering
• electrocatalyst
• urea oxidation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.